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I have never used the sloping landing board. Mine just sticks out flat a couple of inches. I do use a stack of bricks which doubles as a block for any critter planning on using the underside of the hive. These you can see on the photo.

I think it helps any bee that has trouble navigating and is a nice porch on a hot day or night.

I have always wondered about landing boards.
I have never seen anything like this on the side of a bee-tree. So, is it really needed by the bees or is it a beekeeper invention?

The above statement is a bit unfair IMO. But, I will apologise if you actually keep yours in hollow tree-trunks? :confused:

I don't know how much people out there care about bees and how much they watch them? But, where I come from, landing board have been in use for as long as man has started keeping bees in boxes/containers.
(Bees in trees don't bring 200 pus pounds of honey in a season either!)

A bit of open mind is needed here...
Observe the heavy bees trying to land in an entrance.
Right! It is hard!
Now, ad to that a little wind? Not strong wind, just moderate breeze...
Right, bees are thrown all over the place. They usually struggle something awful to get home...
If the beekeeper is a bit of a lazy bone, there could be troublesome grass in front of hive. Perhaps even tall grass, that all but prevents any kind of aproach...
Yes, I know: You too are copying a known trend and have top entrances! That is even worse....
Many a bee will simply never make it in the hive, under a heavy load. And that is a fact!
I have 16 inch landing boards in front all of mine. Had them when I ran commercial outfit too. Cost should not be an issue. Poor bees work themselves to death for us - at least we can do is provide them with half decent approach to their home!?
I would not keep bees without a landing board of some kind - period !

Plywood will do best. But anything is better than nothing.
A word of caution though: No cement, rocks or bricks! They are cold and in colder weather many bees won't make it home...
Rugs in front of hives are great to keep the grass down but get soggy and prove the end of a journey, when cold, for too many a tired bee.

That is the way I see this - and you should too - if you care that is..?

Here is an idea for you. I use wood pallets. I normally cut them in half, and put 2 hives to a pallet. Look around, ask for permission to have them, etc.. Then if you want to dress them up with bricks, scrap wood, or plywood you can. I don't bother treating the pallets, or paint them, although you certainly could. They help keep grass, or weeds from clogging the entrances.

I use a hodge podge of different equimpent styles. The sloping landing board usually is not an built in part of the hive but a part of the hive stand, with a bottom board sitting on top of it. I have some hives with the bottom board built in and no landing board. some of them have bottom entrances, some have upper entrances. Most of my hives with no bottom board are built for ease of transportation since the landing board gets in the way when you put stacks of hives on a truck or trailor and then try to secure them with straps across the back which is the current law. If you have bottom boards the boxe cannot fit snug against each other except in the side to side direction, so when you tighten your load some of them will slip and create an opening which disturbs the bees an makes them want to fly out to investigate. The end result is a lot of lost bees. Any time I have to move more that 20 hives at a time I want hives with no landing boards. When they get to their destination I always put them on pallets in such a manner that there is an inch or two of board from the pallet in front of each hive. They can always use that as a landing board. If the entrance is a hole near the top of the hive, I try to use a box with wooden lifting cleats below the hole. The bees don't need much to grab when they come in and if they are so heavy with pollen that they miss the entrance a couple of times they usually miss it by so much that a landing board wouldn't have helped anyway. I've watched them undershoot my combination sloped front hive stands with 1 1/2 " horizontal landing boards above them, just as often as i've seen them undershoot a 1 " hole 3/4 of the way up from the bottom of a deep super with no landing board. My prefered answer to all of this is to make sure when I groom the bee yard that I leave a few shoots of grass in front of each entrance tall enough for the low flyers to climb back up.

Landing boards are the last remaining vestige of the belief that bees
would "appreciate" features in their homes that humans enjoyed.

Many of the pre-Langstroth "patent hives" looked like dollhouses,
and had singled roofs, chimneys, even windows through which one
could presumably watch comb being drawn and filled.

So, the "porch" still exists. Never mind that there's never been
a tree that provided a "porch" of any sort.

If you watch a hive without a landing board, the bees fly right in
and out of the entrance without any problem, and bees that need
a landing surface (due to heavy takeoff/landing traffic, or a heavy
load that makes landing problematic for the bee) are just as happy
to land on the front face of the hive and climb down to the
entrance as they would have been to land on a landing board
and climb up.

The bases that include a sloped ramp up to the entrance are
prone to rot out right at one of the wood joints, which will
topple the hive every time. I find a pair of cinderblocks to
be cheaper and much more sturdy over the long haul for
non-palleted hives.

But a bottom board that extends beyond the front surface of the
hive and provides a "landing board" certainly won't hurt, and does
make it easy to look at what pollens are coming into a hive.

I appreciated the "background" J.F. on the landing boards and porches. I'd never heard that before! Since I don't have to worry much about moving the hives and securing them with straps my only landing boards are Screened Bottom Boards. Wouldn't even think of using a solid board at this point in time. Just my .02. But with the pallet's I might have to investigate just screening different sections so each hive could just be "sat" in it's place. I think someone else is doing just this thing.

>get much more information than I initially thought to ask . . .
Hopefully, some of it is USEABLE

>what type of wood is best to use . . .
The part that touches the ground should resist rot. Cyprus is often suggested for that reason. Many BKs use (other woods) some form of rot preventive. Pressure treated wood (deck material) might be used (may "runners" that touch the ground) IF none of it is INSIDE the hive.

A "hive stand" made of treated materials would last more than a "life time".
A "bottom board" that sits on a "hive stand" should not be made of pressure treated materials.

>I do use solid bottom boards . . .
We all have made "mistakes" , and
it's never too late to "change our ways"

>>
Yes, I know: You too are copying a known trend and have top entrances! That is even worse....
>>Many a bee will simply never make it in the hive, under a heavy load. And that is a fact!

come on France, thats a bit off the mark, dont you think?
A bees, foraging up a heavey load, flying back from the field as fast and efficient as she can up to two miles, and not being able to make it into the hive becasue the hive has an upper enterence,and it cant fly up to it? I kind of doubt it.

In my opinion landing boards are nice. but I dont use that slanted one. I have about 2 inches extra length off my bottom boards, made up freely of otherwise wasted cut plywood. Works good. But I wouldnt say they make a honeycrop. I have kept hives with no landing board, and they use the frount of the hive just as well, staining it yellow of pollen, and produce a fine crop of honey. I think it takes more than no landing board to interupt the bees nature of production.

I just made my screened bottoms using 2x4 lumber and #8 hardware cloth. Somewhere on this forum is a thread with pictures of them. Works fine for me.
I placed three sides the 3 1/2 side out and the front I placed the 2x4 1 1/2" side facing out--it is the landing board. The landing board was placed 3/8" down from the top of the sides for a 3/8th inch entrance.
Hope that helps.